The politicians America loves to hate are back in session today, and they have plenty of opportunities on the horizon to prove they can actually get something done. After voting on President Obama’s proposal to strike Syria, Congress will face its third budget showdown since 2011, debate the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, and try to push immigration reform through the House. Here’s a look at what’s coming up for some of the issues on Congress’ fall agenda:
• Find out where the votes stand on Syria (WaPo). In a crazy twist of fate, the first big Syria vote could come on the anniversary of 9/11 (CNN).
• Why the success of Obamacare depends on millennials (CS Monitor).
• Immigration reform falls to the back of the line (NY Times).
The success of these debates will hinge on talks between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner. Here’s an inside look at how they negotiate (WaPo).
Why Writing Emails Is So Horrible
Yes! This Is Exactly Why Writing Emails Is So Horrible
I have to write a lot of emails. A lot of emails. And each and every one is like a vacation to hell. If you're anything like me, you know exactly how that feels, but this video from Domics sums it up so perfectly it makes want to die and never write another email again.
Maybe I'll start linking to this in my signature so we can all be on the same page. [Domics viaReddit]
Original Post http://gizmodo.com
How a Former Drug Dealer Survived Hepatitis C, HIV and Cancer and Overcame Addiction
Originally posted at AlterNet / By Tessie Castill
Photo of Steve Daniels, courtesy of Tessie Castillo.
September 4, 2013 |
The scars on his face tell stories. Outside a coffee shop in downtown Winston Salem, North Carolina, Steve Daniels aka “Gator” sits straight and proud, eyeing the small tape recorder in my hand. I lay it down and press ‘record’.
“Let’s start from the beginning,” I say. “Tell me about your childhood.”
He frowns and purses his lips, perhaps reluctant to reveal a life of pain to an acquaintance less than half his age. A tall black man, handsome, but gaunt, a muslim kufi tops his gray-specked hair and he walks with the aid of a cane. People hush when Steve enters a room, not because he is famous, but because one look at the broken body and defiant jaw and they sense the presence of a veteran, not of war, but of life. Steve is a man who has survived hepatitis C, HIV andcancer, a man whose every move brings a spasm of pain, but whose proud eyes dare you to pity him.
At drug policy conferences where we occasionally meet, Steve stands out amidst the talking suits, the well-meaning people who’ve never taken a hit of a crack pipe in their lives, yet cry for reform. Drugs are Steve’s forte. He has snorted them, smoked them, shot them, sold them, and now, 17 years sober, he is here to make amends. Since leaving a life of drugs and crime, Steve runs an underground syringe exchange program in central North Carolina. From the back of his van he quietly distributes supplies to brothers on the street whose lives are still embroiled in drugs. He teaches about HIV and hepatitis C prevention and helps those who are willing get into treatment. Though syringe exchange is illegal in North Carolina, Steve does what he believes is right, and scoffs at any definition of himself as a hero.
“I do it because somebody’s got to do it,” he says with characteristic bluntness.
Outside the coffee shop, the occasional freight train shrieks past, rattling our table and forcing the interview to pause. As Steve recounts a life of crime and loss, the story floods out in so much detail that we can’t finish in our allotted time and have to reschedule another meeting. And then another. And another. In between interviews, he calls and texts frequently to add more to the story, things he’d forgotten to say. I ask him why he’s suddenly so open. He pauses before answering.
“All my friends and family are dead from HIV and hepatitis C. I’m the only one left alive to tell the story.”
***
Steve Daniels grew up in High Point, North Carolina. Son of an alcoholic, absentee father, his mother, grandmother and aunts raised him with strict lessons in independence and self-sufficiency. But they also taught him to serve.
“My grandmother grew vegetables and canned them, then gave them away to the neighborhood,” Steve explains. “To other black people, our family had a lot. From a white perspective, we were poor.”
Possessed of keen intelligence even as a boy, Steve did well in school and went on to attend Virginia Union University in Richmond with a major in biology. He planned to study medicine. But the freedoms of college had an irresistible allure for a mischievous young man and Steve was often on academic probation, in his words, for “actin’ like a damn fool.” Soon a thirst for new experiences took him on frequent trips into town.
“I used to catch the bus to downtown Richmond,” he says. “In North Carolina I’d never seen a drug dealer or a pimp, so I was curious when I saw these well-dressed guys leaning on Cadillacs. They had pretty women, nice watches and rings, alligator shoes. They looked peaceful to me and I told myself I wanted that.”
Limbaugh compares poor children getting free meals in school to family pets.
On the September 6th edition of Premiere Radio Network’s The Rush Limbaugh Show, Limbaugh compares poor children getting free meals in school to family pets.
When you get a new pet what is the first thing you do to try to bond with it, you want to be the one to feed it right? You don’t want anybody else feeding that new puppy or kitten because you know that that puppy and kitten will bond with you first…
Listen to his outrageousness here:
Religious Crazies Say The Darndest Things
This article originally appeared on Alternet.
For the Christian right, having a “faith-based” worldview extends far beyond claims about demons and angels. Unsurprisingly, the world of fundamentalist Christians is absolutely crawling with conspiracy theories, urban legends, and just plain bizarre beliefs about how the world works. Here’s a list of 10 of the weirder ones are currently in circulation.
1) Same-sex marriage is an elaborate scheme concocted by lesbians to entrap men. David Usher of the Center for Marriage Policy managed to cough up a theory that is an outstanding blend of homophobia, misogynist myths about the mendacity of women, and paranoia about the supposed gravy train that is child support. He argues that women will marry each other and conscript men into supporting them by “pretending they are using birth control when they are not.” The men will then “become economically conscripted third parties to these marriages, but get nothing in return,” presumably because the only reason a man would want to care for his own children would be in exchange for sex and housework. He also assumes that the only sources of income women have access to are child support and welfare; the possibility that women hold jobs doesn’t seem to occur to him.
Usher is trying to find a way to justify the increasingly ridiculous right-wing claim that same-sex marriage is somehow undermining “traditional” heterosexual marriage. He has zero-evidence for his claim outside of his belief that women are generally sleazy liars, and will “cheat” men out of the straight marriages they’re entitled to by sneaking off with women.
Amanda Marcotte is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and journalist. She's published two books and blogs regularly at Pandagon, RH Reality Check and Slate's Double X.MORE AMANDA MARCOTTE.
Voter Fraud Found In Florida
The issue of voter misrepresentation and new prohibitive voter ID laws has taken this nation by storm the final couple of years. Republican lawmaking bodies the whole way across the nation have taken "a stand against voter misrepresentation" and passed remarkably prohibitive new laws which they case will diminish the plausibility of false voting.
It happens that Florida, with their Republican Governor Rick Scott, is one of these states asserting strict voter ID laws are wanted to counteract the probability of uncontrolled voter fraud,
It happens that Florida, with their Republican Governor Rick Scott, is one of these states asserting strict voter ID laws are wanted to counteract the probability of uncontrolled voter fraud,
Upon concluding their investigation, they reported a staggering—two cases of voter registration fraud.
Yes, after several months of investigation following the 2012 elections, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found a whopping two cases of actual voter registration fraud.
Oh, and the kicker? The two cases consisted of two voter registration forms fraudulently filled out by a man who worked for the Republican party. He admitted to stealing the identity of his former girlfriend’s ex-husband and filling out the two forms.
Well, the number of cases might increase considering two more cases do remain open, though it’s clear Governor Scott has moved on from this investigation.
I guess that’s what happens when you try to invent a problem that has never existed.
And this pattern of not finding “rampant” evidence of voter fraud isn’t just in Florida — Republicans all across the country are having trouble finding evidence that fraudulent voting is a threat to our election process.
But Republicans haven’t let these kinds of facts stand in their way of passing highly restrictive new voting laws in numerous Republican-controlled states which they claim will reduce the number of cases where people have tried to vote or register to vote illegally.
Though, let’s be honest. Anyone with even a shred of common sense is well aware that these laws have nothing to do with “voter fraud” and everything to do with keeping people who often don’t vote for Republicans from being able to vote at all.
Justice Sandra O'Connor upholds need for civics education for U.S. kids.
Two-thirds of Americans cannot name a single Supreme Court justice, former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor told the crowd that packed into a Boise State ballroom to hear her Thursday.
About one-third can name the three branches of government. Fewer than one-fifth of high school seniors can explain how citizen participation benefits democracy.
"Less than one-third of eighth-graders can identify the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence, and it's right there in the name," she said.
O'Connor touted civics education during her keynote address at the "Transforming America: Women and Leadership in the 21st Century" conference, put on by the Andrus Center for Public Policy. She also described being a female lawyer in the 1950s, and challenged her listeners to help the next generation of leaders reach their goals.
"The more I read and the more I tune in, the more evident it is that our social order experiences a disturbing level of open obliviousness," O'connor said.
That lack of awareness begins in the soonest years of a kid's educating, she said, however frequently proceeds the distance through school and graduate school.
O'connor contended that researching citizenship is all in all as critical for American kids as studying augmentation or how to compose their names.
SCIENTISTS BAFFLED BY MYSTERIOUS, TINY STRUCTURES IN AMAZON
 |
| (photos courtesy of Troy S. Alexander and the Tambopata Research Center) |
There's something fun about scientists being completely stumped--it's a little reminder that, despite everything we humans have figured out about our world, the Earth is far more diverse and mysterious than we can imagine. One such enigma has cropped up this week in South America, as WIRED explains:
Something in the Peruvian Amazon is making weird, intricate structures that resemble white picket fences surrounding an Isengard-like spire.
No one has any idea who the mysterious craftsbug (fungus? spider?) is, or what the structure is even used for, excepting the fence part, which almost makes sense. Nobody, not even the scientists. We asked.
Troy Alexander, a graduate student at Georgia Tech, spotted the first of these structures on June 7. The little, seemingly woven fence was parked on the underside of a blue tarp near the Tambopata Research Center, in southeastern Peru. He later spotted three more of the bizarre enclosures on tree trunks in the jungle.
Photos of the mysterious structures were first posted to Reddit's "What's this bug?" section 10 days ago, and biologist Phil Torres, who works in the Tambopata area, tweeted a link to the photos last week.
WIRED reached out to a smattering of scientists to ask for hypotheses about the structures' origins and got back...well, not many answers:
“I have no idea what made it, or even what it is,” said William Eberhard, an entomologist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
“I’ve seen the photo, but have no idea what animal might be responsible,” echoed Norm Platnick, curator emeritus of spiders at the American Museum of Natural History.
“I don’t know what it is,” said arachnologist Linda Rayor, of Cornell University. “My guess is something like a lacewing, but I don’t really know.”
Towleroad scientists--anyone have a theory as to what these tiny towers might be?
Check out some more photos of the formations
US orders non-essential embassy staff in Lebanon to leave, issues travel warning
The United States has withdrawn all non-emergency embassy workers and their families from Beirut and warned Americans against travel to Lebanon amid looming military strikes on Syria, the State Department said Friday.
It said the decision had been taken "due to potential threats to U.S. Mission facilities and personnel," and comes amid tension in the region over possible U.S.-led action.
“Given the current situation in Syria and the region, as well as potential threats to U.S. Government facilities and personnel, we are taking these steps out of an abundance of caution to protect our employees and their families, and local employees and visitors to our facilities,” a statement said.
“We will continue to assess the situation and to adjust our security posture accordingly.”
It also gave U.S. Embassy workers based in south-east Turkey the option to leave voluntarily.
Beirut's main airport is still open and commercial flights out are still available.
It comes after the State Department on Thursday issued a warning against all non-essential travel for U.S. citizens in Iraq because of “ongoing security concerns in Iraq, including kidnapping and terrorist violence.”
Farm Subsidies Program Fraud Raised by 67 percent-Where Was Fox News
A new inspector general report documenting overpayments in farm subsidies challenges Fox News' reporting on the farm bill, which has focused on demagogouing food stamps and their recipients.
Fox has endlessly campaigned against the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade attacked the program after another USDA report showed the rate of food stamp trafficking, or selling benefits for cash, had risen from 1.0 percent in 2006-2008 to 1.3 percent in 2009-2011. Fox also produced a special report titled "The Great Food Stamp Binge" that focused on the story of a California musician who takes advantage of SNAP benefits, explicitly attempting to make the musician "the new face of food stamps." Fox is reportedly distributing copies of the special to members of Congress in anticipation of a vote on a bill that would reduce SNAP funding.
A report by the Department of Agriculture's inspector general showed the USDA "paid out $20.3 million more than it should have last year to farmers and other aid recipients," according to Politico. The article went on to report that "the USDA sent out more money than it should have for subsidies and that other farmer assistance rose by 67 percent in 2012."
Food stamps and farm subsidies have historically been contained within the same bill, but earlier this year Republicans led an effort to cut SNAP from the bill, a move that Fox defended but which could jeopardize the program's survival.
The low rate of fraud and abuse in the SNAP program -- which kept 4.7 million people out of poverty in 2011 -- has not stopped Fox from regularly attacking the program. Given its history, don't expect the network to devote anywhere near the same amount of coverage to farm bill overpayments that have nothing to do with SNAP
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